High-kinetic energy charged particle beam

Summary form only given. We propose a high-kinetic energy charged particle beam to potentially travel through air and clouds at more than 600,000 m/s. We calculate it will apply force of mega Newtons onto a missile hundreds of km distant within a few seconds. The basis for this beam is the discovery of a plasma toroid that remains stable in air for relatively long periods with no external magnetic field containment, using ambient air pressure for containment instead. It is the electron spiral toroid (EST). We produce EST´s in our lab, and have independent confirmation of the physics of the EST. The EST is a self-organized plasma toroid that is force-free and charge neutral, and forms an internal magnetic field. EST´s are observed to remain stable for more than 200 milliseconds in partial atmosphere, before moving out of our field of view, and we calculate they will endure for many seconds in air. Experimental data was collected on a recent MDA STTR. On that MDA project, we demonstrated magnetic acceleration of the EST´s. We have since designed a method aimed at scaling up the velocity to 600,000 m/s, a project we plan to start in 2004. We calculate that an EST beam will apply a large amount of force on a small area. Accelerating a single 6.6E-6g EST to 6E5 m/s and then stopping it on target will provide a force of 9.6 mega N. A beam of EST´s will potentially act like a cutting beam, and will release energy on the target as X-radiation. We calculate that beam power can be increased to the tens of megawatts range, assuming power supply availability. This high-kinetic energy particle beam has the potential to be applied to missile defense.